Volunteering can be daunting – especially if you don’t know where to begin. Not having connections; not knowing what opportunities exist; not knowing where to look – ALL add up to make it difficult for us to volunteer.
CUE GB, a new, interactive portal gives students an easy way to get involved in volunteering. The GoGetters sat down with Stephanie Kaponya from The Office of Student Life to unveil the new engagement platform.
Help is HERE:
What is it?
CUE GB is an online platform that makes it easy for students, organizations and businesses to post its various volunteer activities. It’s also an easy way to get involved on campus!
Stephanie said many community organizations were looking for volunteers; asking how they can better reach students at UWGB. CUE GB became the answer. “We wanted this to have its own identity and yes, it’s about volunteering, but it’s also about getting out to the community. That’s how we came up with the acronym CUE GB which is: Community University Engagement,” she said.
A group of student organizations helped with the design, name, logo and colors for the website making it a fun, learning experience for everyone involved.
How is it different?
CUE GB was designed specifically for the UWGB community. “It’s a way for us to have our own entity and do things internally,” Stephanie said. “If we were just part of the volunteer center, we wouldn’t be able to advertise the internal component.”
FOR EXAMPLE: Student Life includes their events in the “events tab” of the website such as UWGB Nites – where students can learn more about the event and even RSVP. While CUE GB is pretty exclusive, Marinette, Manitowoc and the Sheboygan campuses can participate as well. (The only downfall might be more travel needed for volunteer opportunities.)
How do you use CUE GB?
“CUE GB is an interactive portal for people to take out the middleman.” Agencies are always looking for volunteers, and with the help of CUE GB, students can respond immediately to a request. On the website, you can see the needs, the events and the agencies all connected to CUE GB. Once you begin volunteering, you can see your “stats” on the dashboard including the number of needs you’ve responded to, events you’ve RSVP’d, hours volunteered and your financial impact = your hours converted to dollars.
Volunteer opportunities are found under the “needs” tab, while the “events” tab features events in the community people can RSVP.
“You do get an email and a reminder email the day before, and you can always go back and unregister,” Stephanie added. “If there’s a need that is already created and you accept, the lead from the volunteering objective will go in and approve those hours, and then they’ll show up, and then it also gets added to the calendar.”
What’s The Vision?
“My goal is to have Make a Difference Day on there next year. That’s my ultimate goal because that’s going to be our main sign-up form. We’re also trying to get the new freshman coming in for the freshman service project so, come summer when they are coming to orientation, when they pick their classes, they will hopefully sign up or make a profile so they can sign up for that service project.”
In addition to Make a Difference Day, Stephanie wants the system to keep growing and for people to continue to use it. “I don’t want it to be scary,” she said. “I want CUE GB to be a tool to help people know what is out there. It’s new and that’s what I want people to know… My hope is that a system making it easier will get more people out there. That’s my ultimate goal.”
Questions? “Just shoot me an email,” she said, “and if I don’t have an answer, I’ll hopefully find the answer.” kaponyas@uwgb.edu
Written by The GoGetters: Jenelle Mackie, Emily Gerlikovski, Ashley Stafne and Ekaterina Lindeman
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Cue up CUE GB